Pushpamala has been a performance artist since 1998, when she came on to the art scene dressed in a cape and mask as the 'Phantom Lady'; since then she has played many personas in her body of photo-fantasies that can be both tragic and comic.

'Some of my work is very tongue in cheek, but it is also very comic,' Pushpamala says.

'In this body of work I have attempted to capture the moods or rasas as well as art historical references from [Renaissance artist] Nicolas Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women, [Anglo- Swiss 18/19th-century artist] Henry Fuseli's Nightmare, early ethnographic and animation films, and the cinema of Dadasaheb Phalke,' says the 55-year-old who started out as a sculpture student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Vadodara, where she earned her MFA degree.

The artist says she got a variety of responses from the audience; some found it very moving, others were tickled by the underlying humour.

'I have used a certain stage-like quality that is important for this work,' says Pushpamala.

'My obvious reference is to the Ramayana, but I am also speaking of archetypal women as well, that is why I have not used specific names for the characters.'

In that sense, her work also references contemporary instances of abduction and rape.

'One could say that the increasing violence on women that has come to our notice via the media has played a subliminal role in my choice of themes,' she points out.

Pushpamala also tells us that the 'Phantom Lady' will stage a comeback with a new costume and look - the works will travel to Mumbai as part of the Majlis initiative titled 'Cinema City'.

This show opens in May and will come to the NGMA post-July.

The artist also has a solo opening at the Graham Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Ohio. She's going places, and how!